Ah, YOLO c'mon the G-League is more than pickup games. It's evolving into the NBA's minor league. It's not the big show, but you have a unique blend of elite prospects (2 Top 5 picks likely), NBA experienced vets and young players with potential fighting for their chance. It creates a competitive and interesting showcase for the big clubs to develop and assess talent in live games. As for KPJ, it's easy to see his talent in virtually any setting. He has elite handles and touch, excellent court vision and uncanny ability to finish. He's a bit lackadaisical on defense, but has picked that up with more PT. His lower body shot mechanics are unique and some adjustments may make his shot more consistent, but I don't see anything that warrants major concerns. I think he's biggest impediment to success on the Rockets will be the plethora of vet 1/2s we have. Subtract some of those and he'll get a chance to show us what he can really do. He's still young and likely will have some rough patches, but hopefully the Rox's staff can help him learn form those experiences and use that to shape his growth as a player and a man.
If all he had done was thrown a temper tantrum the Cavs would have never given him away. No, I'm talking about: https://sports.yahoo.com/cavaliers-...-of-punching-woman-in-the-face-201053434.html "Cleveland Cavaliers player Kevin Porter Jr. has been accused of punching a woman in the face" per Yahoo Sports. https://www.si.com/nba/2020/12/17/charges-against-cavaliers-kevin-porter-jr-dropped "The Cavaliers guard faced charges of improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, per Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor, after flipping his Mercedes SUV on an interstate just south of Cleveland. A loaded .45-caliber handgun was found along with a small amount of mar1juana." per Sports Illustraed. That's a whole lot of trouble to get into in one year. And that's without getting into temper tantrum or the fact he was suspended from USC for conduct issues.
he’s had a decent rookie year, and that’s it the talk of him being more polished than rookie James Harden and all the other hype means nothing...ball out in the league 1st, then I’ll anoint u thankfully, he’s finally been called up
Yes. He was the last pick in the first round purely because of character concerns. He would have been a lottery pick otherwise. And in the year since, instead of proving the doubters wrong, he has steadily reaffirmed those concerns with several criminal charges and allegations including a weapons charge, an assault of a woman allegation, a car crash, a locker room tantrum and some suicidal instagram posts. So if he fell to the last pick of the first round based simply on his suspension from USC, I see no reason it not possible he'd fall out of the draft entirely with all of that new evidence to justify concerns about his character/conduct. And I say that as someone who was a troubled kid and had a lot of growing up to do too. I also struggled with mental health issues and had some legal troubles in my teen years. So I empathize with the kid and I hope he is one of the ones who can turn his life around. But you guys are ready to erase his whole history of misconduct after a couple months of being a Rio Grande Valley Viper and life just doesn't work that way. The kid has more to prove off the court than he does on the court and that has been the case since before he was drafted. And thus far, he's gone in nothing but the wrong direction in that regard. It's very weird to me that you guys are pretending otherwise.
Like you are saying that you don't have to read my other posts from other threads, I don't have to regurgitate the same point I've stated over and have repeatidly stated he has a large up hill battle to climb. Everyone here acknowledes that. At this point you are aeguint for arguments' sake. Doesn't mean we can't be cautiously optimistic about his future. And saying that he is a part of our future plans is not breaking the theme of being "cautiously optimistic".
I am not arguing that we can't be optimistic about his future. But this thread is about where he would go in the coming draft. I feel like right now it's possible he'd go undrafted based off his off court behavior. I don't know how that precludes him from overcoming those obstacles and having a bright future. I don't think it does. I just think he's done a whole lot more to hurt his stock than to help it thus far and it feels like damn near everybody is choosing to completely ignore that around here.
This 20 yr old has top 10 talent. It remains to be seen if he can put it all together and keep it there.
Yep, Danuel House looked like Kevin Durant in the G-League, and Hartenstein looked like Giannis Without the off the court issues. He can dribble, pass, shoot, and finish strong at the rim. He'd probably be just outside Top 5.
Didn't C.Wood resided in the G League. He could be our next Ja. His speed and vision is top rated. His mental issue can be fixed like Vernon Maxwell. C.Wood can mentor him. So excited to see a rookie we haven't had for years.
Those are all excellent accolades for Lucas, but an all-world talent who is uncertain about what he wants to do in life is a different animal. 95% of players will be moved by Lucas, KPJ is not one of them. KPJ might not even understand that others go through intense practice for a decade to be as talented as he was when he was 16. He can't fathom what that struggle is like, and it's not his fault. Just won't impress him. He can have Lucas' career if he just decides to have it. That's a different stratosphere. TOTALLY disagree that Lucas alone is the best bet. There is a clear standard way to deal with this, we do not need to guess. The best bet is a mental health expert who is open to the possibility that this may not be KPJ's preferred career. It's ONLY when KPJ HIMSELF chooses a championship as a path that it will make the other problems melt away. You can bark at him for 6 to 18 months and keep him largely at good motivation, but it's totally unsustainable and will collapse. The sustainable way is to show him that there is a deeper meaning than commercial basketball. Another way is to fast track him through the ranks because people like that learn faster than everyone else, so they don't need to be repeating sh*t all the time just to make a point about how hard things are. I know to people who don't have that talent in their own field or much money it seems like he's spoiled, but that's how geniuses work. Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't be a good entry level employee at facebook. These people's minds are thinking things like "is life worth playing basketball if I prefer gardening? Can I tell people I like gardening more than basketball even though I'm gifted with a basketball?" I hope he chooses basketball. He's such a brilliant offensive player.
I'm going to go with 10-14 that way I can hide should he only average 3pts for the rest of his career. But I like the optimism.
Despite it being only G-League competition he's playing against, one good sign was been Porter's consistency. Any NBA bench-level talent can get 30 or even 40 in the in that league on the right night, but KPJ has been really solid (cue Drex here) night in and night out.
These are both great points, the G is a much more talented league than the old D league or summer league. I’d put it somewhere closer to a high level Euro league, and demonstrates the NBA could easily handle a two team expansion without sacrificing the level of play. Agreed about the glut at guard, but one presumes KPJ steps right into the backup point role, and his minutes increase with trades and injuries to the vets. Next year he could win the starting point with Wall playing off the ball or a Derrick Rose type 6th man role.
